Jean-Claude Cassini

(b. 1968, France)

La Dernière Chevauchée

Jean-Claude Cassini is a French comic artist specialized in western and historical series. He was born and raised in Aix en Provence with the sun, the sea, spaghetti westerns and a passion for drawing. He studied Applied Arts in Marseille for five years and began his career as a graphic artist for the horse racing press. He picked up painting in his spare time, and made his debut as a comic artist with the publishing house Le Téméraire in 1995. His first two books were the historical one shots 'Paris, l'histoire en capitale' (script by Olivier Gilleron) and 'D'Antipolis à Antibes' (script by Christian Goux).

He subsequently began an association with Soleil Productions, where he made his first western, 'Tequila Desperados', with Richard Marazano in 1998. It was followed by a couple of historical series in cooperation with Simon Rocca, 'Bouffe Doublon' (three books, 1999-2001) and 'Séminole' (2002). Cassini then returned to the western genre with Philippe Chanoinat and Hubert Chardot in the series 'La Dernière Chevauchée' (two books, 2003-2005).

Cassini has furthermore drawn a couple of short stories for Pif Gadget between 2004 and 2008, many illustrations for Tout à Lire, while further developing his painting skills. In 2008 he made a comic about Verdun in World War I in cooperation with writers Reynald Secher and Guy Lehideux, for Secher's publishing firm. He returned to Soleil in the following year with the one shot 'Badlands' with Axel Gonzalbo for the collection Terres Secrètes. He has since worked on new historical comic projects with Reynald Secher.